Retail Shopping is Toast

[cinelli 22184]

Two annoying experiences today, that's it. I'm buying everything online now.

 

1: go to Best Buy to get a grad present for my friend's kid. She wants an iPad, great, they got them. Ask sales clerk to get one out of the locked cabinet.

Then it goes crappy.

"Have you heard about our protection plan?"

Oh jeez not this BS again.

I tell the kid I'm not interested and I just want the tablet please.

No way. He launches into a spiel about how he is "not on commission"...as if that is supposed to make him seem more sincere. then tells me how great the plan is. I repeatedly tell him I am NOT INTERESTED but he keeps going. I try telling him my Visa card provides all the same benefits, I know protection plans are a scam and a moneymaker. I argue for at least ten minutes. Nothing gets through to him.

Since he isn't listening to me I ask to see his supervisor. Who them starts the exact same crap all over again. He blatantly LIES about Visa coverage.

So I have now been waiting over fifteen minutes for them to get the tablet out of the case and let me buy it. Patience is done.

"Are you going to give me that tablet or not?"

The kid smiles "I'm not going to let you buy it without a plan!" As if he is worried about my sanity.

I leave, without the tablet.

And am NEVER setting foot in Best Buy or Future Shop again.

 

Round 2: Chapters

Go for a Starbucks and browse books cause I am now in a foul mood. Find book I want, go to register.

"Do you have a membership"...no I don't want one..."You get 15% off blah blah blah"...well why don't you skip the memberships and charge less? "It's so we can serve you better"....sure by data mining and selling my info.

Screw that. No more Chapters/Indigo either, everything I want is on torrent for free or EBay for cheap.

 

I used to like shopping but both of them literally drove me out of the store.

 

And stores whine about poor sales. Fuck them.

[fishstick 3041]

Lol most people working at stores these days have no customer service skills at all.

[mrrnice2 157005]

I am SO with you on this. If I could do ALL my shopping online I would. Except, at this time of year stores and malls are great places for watching pretty women in skirts and shorts.

[roamingguy 300291]

Don't get me started on Future Shop. They were, well the salesman was the one who told me when I went shopping for a computer (FS had a sale on at the time...$200 for a laptop) to me a bunch of crooks. I went to get the laptop, and he said yes, $200 for the laptop but something like $600-$700 for an operating system (Windows 8 btw, they should pay us to take it)

WTF...didn't even finish listening to his spiel, just turned around, walked out, went to Costco, got a laptop for just under $400.00

Guess that's why I hate shopping too...unless it's something for a special friend, that I enjoy

A rambling

 

RG

[Guest S*rca****sid]

Two annoying experiences today, that's it. I'm buying everything online now.

 

1: go to Best Buy to get a grad present for my friend's kid. She wants an iPad, great, they got them. Ask sales clerk to get one out of the locked cabinet.

Then it goes crappy.

"Have you heard about our protection plan?"

Oh jeez not this BS again.

I tell the kid I'm not interested and I just want the tablet please.

No way. He launches into a spiel about how he is "not on commission"...as if that is supposed to make him seem more sincere. then tells me how great the plan is. I repeatedly tell him I am NOT INTERESTED but he keeps going. I try telling him my Visa card provides all the same benefits, I know protection plans are a scam and a moneymaker. I argue for at least ten minutes. Nothing gets through to him.

Since he isn't listening to me I ask to see his supervisor. Who them starts the exact same crap all over again. He blatantly LIES about Visa coverage.

So I have now been waiting over fifteen minutes for them to get the tablet out of the case and let me buy it. Patience is done.

"Are you going to give me that tablet or not?"

The kid smiles "I'm not going to let you buy it without a plan!" As if he is worried about my sanity.

I leave, without the tablet.

And am NEVER setting foot in Best Buy or Future Shop again.

 

Round 2: Chapters

Go for a Starbucks and browse books cause I am now in a foul mood. Find book I want, go to register.

"Do you have a membership"...no I don't want one..."You get 15% off blah blah blah"...well why don't you skip the memberships and charge less? "It's so we can serve you better"....sure by data mining and selling my info.

Screw that. No more Chapters/Indigo either, everything I want is on torrent for free or EBay for cheap.

 

I used to like shopping but both of them literally drove me out of the store.

 

And stores whine about poor sales. Fuck them.

I ordered a cup a coffee online once... It arrived cold and the box was soggy.

[roamingguy 300291]

I ordered a cup a coffee online once... It arrived cold and the box was soggy.

 

I discovered from someone special that coffee can be ordered on line, and flavours not available in Canada are available on line ;-)

 

RG

[Guest S*rca****sid]

I discovered from someone special that coffee can be ordered on line, and flavours not available in Canada are available on line ;-)

 

RG

Nothing beats a good Kopi Luwak coffee!

[oldblueeyez 15475]

WTF...didn't even finish listening to his spiel, just turned around, walked out, went to Costco, got a laptop for just under $400.00

RG

 

God bless Costco, the wine shop, Salvation Army/Value Village, Fishermens Market, and the Farmers Market. The rest can go to hell. :D

[cinelli 22184]

God bless Costco, the wine shop, Salvation Army/Value Village, Fishermens Market, and the Farmers Market. The rest can go to hell. :D

 

LOL I went to Costco a few blocks away, got the kid a tablet, no problem.

 

In and out of the store in ten minutes. God bless Costco indeed!

[daddio 2704]

I hear you.

 

I'm trying to think of the last time, or even when, I bought anything on-line. That may be a generational thing, I was in my 30s before I got a credit card and I used it as little as possible. I still do, but the usage increased over time. Inevitably you might say. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut, so it goes.

 

And I try to avoid big franchise stores as much as possible. For example, I've always bought books at local, independent book stores and I think the extra cost is well spent.

 

I have what I realise is not an entirely supportable bias against product from the US of A. It would take too long to explain that bias but someone of my age (SENIOR citizen) may have some understanding. However it is almost impossible to adhere to that so-called "principle" of mine. So I live with that particular sin of mine.

 

I go to a local coffee shop where the proprietor serves behind the counter and is absolutely charming.

 

And I suspect, without any objective evidence, that your experience with that sales clerk and manager have come about in Canada because of the influence of the US of A.

 

Look what's happened to The Bay, to Eatons, and so many local Canadian stores.

 

And look at what we got to replace those iconic Canadian stores - Wal-Mart, and now Target, etc. etc. etc

 

I stand to be corrected, but it would take a whole lot to do so.

 

Jeezus - maybe in my approaching dotage I've gotten to to be what I always dreaded to be - close-minded.

 

Tell me it ain't so.

[roamingguy 300291]

God bless Costco, the wine shop, Salvation Army/Value Village, Fishermens Market, and the Farmers Market. The rest can go to hell. :D

 

You forgot Walmart

 

 

RG :-)

[Guest **cely***r***ne]

I think a course in customer service should be mandatory in their hiring protocol. I took a course called World Host...cost me about 300.00 but it is worth it.

 

And would be beneficial if the people want their business to succeed. I think to have great employees means better chances of repeat customers...

[fortunateone 156618]

I only go to stores where i can get in and out without walking 3 blocks to the milk section, then 3 blocks back to where to buy it, and then still have to put it in the bag myself after paying for it.

 

So while i may not only select the owner operated store, I am more likely to be in Waves over Starbucks. It's a chain, but a small one. Dollarama, not Walmart, etc, in a small mall (one floor, 10 shops) not a metropolis mall.

 

I have a friend who when he finds something he is looking for at a particular store, even BB or FS or (hey those are funny!) or LD (London Drugs), he simply returns to the same location, to the same person. He'll call to see when that person is working, and goes back to work only with them.

 

I think the clerks encountered in the OPs example are pushed by employers to do all that. In some places, failure to say certain things can lead to problems for the employee. i think they should have backed off once they asked and you answered of course.

[jafo105 39057]

I H-A-T-E shopping in stores. I tend to buy most things online including groceries. I am usually able to find a better price online and free shipping.

 

• 
  
• I get all my personal care, home care, and groceries from http://fillmyfridge.ca/ (Ottawa) They also have the biggest selection of soft and hard alcohol: beer, wine, spirits. They also have condoms, lubes and lotions. The only thing they don't seem to have are roses... ;)
  

[Old Dog 179138]

As a former retail worker in my distant youth....

 

Remember the people that are working in these stores are generally hired because they are cheap, not because they are the best or most knowledgeable. In the world of consumer goods, the cheapest form of delivering service starts with hiring the cheapest labour one can find.

 

Back in the day of Canadian retail giants (Simpsons, Eatons, The Bay, Robinsons, Ogilvys et al) the workers kept their jobs because they were good... and they could reasonably expect to earn enough to sustain a comfortable standard of living. They were never going to be rich, but they were satisfied with the job and they knew their stuff.

 

Management consultants and efficiency experts changed all that. They convinced the giants that cheaper was the way to go. Problem was, the consultants never consulted the consumer or the worker (sound familiar C36???) Consumers left because the service was no longer worth paying that little extra for... and good retail workers left because, well because companies let them go... they were too expensive. And THAT's how our homegrown retail giants fell into oblivion.

 

Ohhhhh... and remember... if Peter MacKay has his way, the EXIT strategy includes a pathway to minimum wage retail jobs for thousands of service providers....

[oldblueeyez 15475]

I don't consider myself that old (though I guess when dancers sit beside you and say, "I like older men," you've passed the point of no return) but it doesn't seem that long ago that when you bought something big like a livingroom full of furniture, you got half drunk with the salesman and store owner in the backroom after the deal was made. Or maybe that was just a hillbilly Nova Scotia thing. lol

[Guest Na****a***mers (RETIRED)]

They push gold member status at Costco in the same manner.

[fishstick 3041]

I don't consider myself that old (though I guess when dancers sit beside you and say, "I like older men," you've passed the point of no return) but it doesn't seem that long ago that when you bought something big like a livingroom full of furniture, you got half drunk with the salesman and store owner in the backroom after the deal was made. Or maybe that was just a hillbilly Nova Scotia thing. lol

 

That's not a hillbilly NS thing. Its just the way things work on the east coat.

Or used to.

[Lowdark 5613]

Most of the Big Box retailers invest as little money as possible in their staff, from the number of employees (that's the reason why there's only one or two cashiers open with a thousand people in line) to doing as little training as possible. In most of these places, people are hired then pretty much put into the sales environment with an immediate demand to sell as much as possible. I know a guy who used to work at BB and when he complained to one of his superiors about trying to manage his department with such little staff he was told by his boss to help customers less. They also apparently got yelled at when shoplifting happened even though they only had a handful of people in the whole store to "prevent" it. Personally I don't shop at Future Shop or the Source because they're big time commission (had a few friends who worked there and hated it) or Best Buy, because they drive their staff like they are, despite all their non-pressure advertising. I shop at Walmart as little as possible because they treat their workers poorly. Even Amazon has gotten into a bit of trouble lately, trying to leverage some big suppliers into lower prices (Warner Bros. among them), and they're employee satisfaction has fallen through the floor. The OPS may disagree with me, but I love shopping at Chapters (I'm a big book fanatic) and they've increased their product selection lately, including electronics without the extended warranty pressure. I like to shop at the Canadian owned HMV for movies that I can't stream through NetFlix, and Costco has an excellent reputation for how they teat their employees (which is why they have such little turnover).

[Ice4fun 78396]

While I generally agree that the level if service we receive in retail establishments has declined it's a but if a chicken and egg thing to me. Retailers that provide higher levels if service have greater costs to support those services but generally we are not willing to pay more for the service... we lament the loss of service but jump at the reduced cost of discount retailers.

 

Just my opinion